Dear Michael, Rick, et al.,

The value of having access to an original taxonomic work is exemplified by Dr.
Hollman's trenchant response (in contrast to my less focused hypotheses).

It seems the Spaniards were using that compelling pun well before Dall's time!

Thanks, Michael.

Harry


At 11:34 PM 4/7/2001 +0200, you wrote:
>Hi Rick,
>
>"draconis" refers to the British naval leader and privateer Sir Francis
>Drake (1546-1596) who was nicknamed "El Draco" by the Spaniards. Dall stated
>in his original description that he named the species in his honor.
>This was likely triggered by the fact that one of the four localites
>mentioned in the original description of E. draconis, and the one mentioned
>first, is Drake's Bay in California. The other three were Monterey, off
>Farallones Islands, and off Avalon, Catalina Island.
>Drake's Bay was discovered by Sir Francis Drake on July 26, 1579  on his
>voyage around the globe and was used by him to rest his crew and refit his
>ship, the "Golden Hind", for more than one month. As was customary at the
>time, he claimed the entire territory for the British Crown, naming it "New
>Albion".
>Interestingly, the label of the holotype at the Smithsonian (USNM 172859)
>states "Monterey Bay"  as the type locality,while in the USNM type database
>the locality is given as "Drake's Bay, California; specimen taken by the R/V
>"Albatross, stn. 3125,  at 15 fathoms, 54.7 degree F"
>
>Hope this helps,
>
>Regards,
>
>Michael Hollmann

I had written:

Dear Rick,

Dall stated in the original description, 1903, of which I only have an abstract

(Boss, K. J., J. Rosewater, and F. A. Ruhoff, 1968. The zoological taxa of
William Healey Dall. U. S. N. M. Bull. 287: 1-427.) that this creature came
from Drakes's Bay, California [Marin Co.; Pt. Reyes forms its NW border]. It
seems
certain he was considering the type locality place in coining the binomen
Lunatia draconis. He MAY have been punning a bit with "draconis," which means
"of the dragon" literally translated from the Latin. The origin of the third
declension Latin "draco, draconis" seems to be the Greek "drakon." "Drakon"
must not be confused with "Draco," sometimes rendered "Dracon," the Greek
legislator celebrated for his stringency in the English word "Draconian," in
contrast to "draconic," dragon-like, derived from "drakon."

Anyway, it is also possible that Dall was trying to put a purely classical spin

on the species name. I, for one, presumed that Sir Francis Drake (ca.
1540-1596) derived his surname from the word for male duck, "drake," which, I
find, entered the English language from German around 1250-1300 AD. However
that word, "drake," had been in the Middle English lexicon (so to speak) since
before 900 AD, and had a totally different meaning - "dragon," apparently
coming from the Latin.

Someone once told me that many English surnames were created early in the 13th
century (Magna Carta [1215] and all that stuff), so it may be that Sir Francis
(after whom the Bay is named) had Dragon rather than Duck ancestors. In any
event, I think it is safe to say that the snail's name refers to Sir Francis
Drake. I believe Dall was enough of a Latinist to have meant the person rather
than the place in his name selection.  Interestingly, in its head-long mission
to avoid
patronymics, the benchmark work, Turgeon, D. D., J. F. Quinn, Jr., A. E. Bogan,

E. V. Coan, F. G. Hochberg, W. G. Lyons, P. M. Mikkelsen, R. J. Neves, C. F. E.

Roper, G. Rosenberg, B. Roth, A. Scheltema, F. G. Thompson, M. Vecchione, and
J. D. Williams, 1998. Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates from

the United States and Canada: mollusks, 2nd edition. American Fisheries
Society,
Special Publication 26, Bethesda, Maryland, avoids giving this species a common

name! Tucker Abbott (1974. American seashells. Second edition. Van Nostrand
Reinhold Co., New York, pp. 1-663 incl. numerous text figs. + 24 pls.) calls
this
taxon "Drake's Moon-shell."

Harry

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Harry G. Lee
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